Janison is a wholly Australian owned company based in Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia specialising in the development of cutting-edge learning solutions.

Education

24 April 2015

Property is big business, not just in Australia, but in most countries around the world. And it makes sense really, humans have only a few requirements to ensure the survival of our species and that is water, food, sunlight and shelter. There are more I haven’t mentioned, but you get the gist.

This obvious truth makes the business of property – or real estate – a big deal that touches all of us in some way. In Australia you either board, rent or own, or ‘rent to own’ which is an evolving trend. And from this premise, most of us would have a ‘real estate agent’ story to tell, or two… or many!

Here are some questions to consider:

Who protects us in this high stakes game of bricks and mortar?

What measures exist to ensure property managers don’t kick tenants out of rentals for no legitimate reason?

Who determines the code of ethics in real estate?

What stops a sales agent from selling your investment to a mate on the cheap?

The answer to these questions is simple… the law does, with assistance from the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA). One of the functions of the REIA is to help develop guidelines and set education standards for national training packages that teach practitioners entering the real estate industry.

For real estate agents in Australia, the Real Estate Institute of Australia and all of its branch subsidiaries is the leading national professional association for the real estate sector. Its job is to advise, lobby, monitor and educate stakeholders about commercial and residential property markets in Australia.

According to the Real Estate Institute NSW (REINSW), it’s the ‘largest and most influential association of real estate professionals in NSW’. And how does REINSW act to maintain the integrity of the real estate industry in NSW? Well it does it in many ways, one way is through training.

Accredited training of practitioners ensures a ‘best practice’ standard competency and assumed level of knowledge for those wanting to become real estate salespeople. In 2014, REINSW implemented Janison’s Cloud Learning System (CLS) using courseware developed by Canopi as its new eLearning platform for the Certificate of Registration.

The four units of competency offered online are mandated by industry regulator NSW Fair Trading for entry into the real estate profession. Offering these units in an online capacity means that students can instantly enroll, pay, access and manage their learning autonomously.

There are a multitude of benefits to registered training organisations offering online learning and assessment, particularly for industries with large numbers of members scattered across different states and territories. It also gives people living in rural and remote areas the same level of access to training without being limited by location.

It’s a good feeling knowing that groups like REINSW are keeping pace with advancements in technology, particularly in the learning and assessment space. By doing this it’s creating a more equitable and accessible system for learning, ensuring best practice can be delivered at all times to everyone.

18 February 2015

Close the Gap first came into the consciousness of non-Indigenous Australians in 2008 when the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) set six ambitious targets to address the disadvantage faced by Indigenous Australians in life expectancy, child mortality, education and employment.

Closing the Gap would go on to become a long-term strategy committing the Commonwealth, States and Territories to unprecedented levels of investment to close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage. One organisation that quickly mobilised as a result of the Close the Gap initiative was the Remote Area Health Corps (RAHC).

RAHC was established in October 2008, and its job was to “address persistent challenges to accessing primary healthcare services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait people in the Northern Territory”. To do this, RAHC set about recruiting, culturally orientating and deploying urban-based health professionals (HPs) across remote Indigenous communities.

The types of HPs participating in the scheme included general practitioners, registered nurses and midwives, dental health and allied health professionals. RAHC would then provide ongoing support and training to successfully assist HPs to make the transition into remote practice. The training consisted of elearning modules designed to give an overview of health issues prevalent to the remote health context.

The free online clinical training – using Janison’s LMS – was developed as a resource to provide timely, high quality, orientation and learning materials to anyone interested in remote and Indigenous health. Since December 2008, RAHC has placed more than 600 HPs in almost 2,000 placements. This represents more than 170 man years of healthcare to the Territory. And as of 24 February 2015 (next week), the organisation will celebrate its 3000th placement!

Here are some facts about the health outlook for Indigenous Australians (as provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare):

Twice as many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants are born of low birthweight as non-Indigenous infants. However, between 2000 and 2011, there was a statistically significant decrease in the low birthweight rate among liveborn singleton babies of Indigenous mothers, with the rate declining by 9 per cent over the period (or by 0.1 low birthweight babies per 100 live births annually).

Indigenous Australians have a life expectancy of around 10 years less than non-Indigenous Australians. In 2010–2012, the estimated life expectancy at birth for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males was 69.1 years, and 73.7 years for females. This was 10.6 and 9.5 years lower than the life expectancy of non-Indigenous males and females respectively.

Chronic diseases are main contributors to the mortality ‘gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. However, between 2001 and 2012, there were significant declines in Indigenous mortality rates for circulatory diseases for both males and females (declines of 30 per cent and 29 per cent respectively) and for respiratory diseases for Indigenous males (32 per cent). These declines were greater than those observed for the non-Indigenous population.

Fewer than 1 in 4 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (21.5%) had a health check billed to Medicare in the 2013-14 financial year. Indigenous people experience a general pattern of worsening access to GPs relative to need with increasing remoteness. This is attributed to relatively poor access to GPs and relatively high predicted need for primary health care in more remote areas.

With the ongoing assistance and dedication of Governments, organisations like RAHC and individuals, the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is steadily closing.

06 August 2013

Janison and Deakin University have launched a highly innovative, all-Australian Massive Open Online Course. Leveraging an existing partnership with Deakin University, Janison were asked in late April 2013 to develop a MOOC platform for Deakin University’s open learning space, DeakinConnect with the first course “Humanitarian Responses to 21st Century Disasters”. Deakin University had considered using some of the American MOOC platforms, but wanted something more innovative, fresh and unique, and a partner they could work with closely. Specifically, they were interested in innovation around peer assessment of Learning Outcomes such as Critical Thinking and Global Citizenship. In order to meet the tight timeframe, Janison extended our Cloud Learning Suite product, which already had much of the base infrastructure that a MOOC needs.

Peer Assessment – students can elect to solicit peer credit of their learning exhibits against the Learning Outcomes

Integration with an online portfolio tool – ‘Pathbrite’, allowing students to rapidly put together highly engaging and personalised portfolios as their personal development progresses during the course.

Social Networking - Optional profile synchronisation from LinkedIn and posting updates to LinkedIn and Facebook.

Highly engaging discussion forums designed to stimulate engagement and debate.

Earning badges when peers award credit based on learning exhibits that shows mastery of learning outcomes at or beyond agreed standards.

Rich, fully tracked, and maintainable content, including a range of templates such as quizzes, videos, further resources, images, articles.

Janison used the Out-of-the-box CLS Self-Registration process designer to ensure the desired demographics are captured when students sign up.

The course launched successfully on Monday, July 29, and has already attracted well over 1,000 users.

13 March 2013

Over the past year, Janison has worked closely with The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to design and build their MoneySmart Teaching Online program, which provides educators with the knowledge, skills, strategies and teaching materials to teach consumer and financial literacy.

MoneySmart Teaching Online comprises two modules one for primary and one for secondary educators. The modules are free and provide interactive professional learning and feature expert interviews, case studies in schools, and scenarios.

MoneySmart Teaching Online was built using Janison’s Cloud Learning Suite (CLS) and makes use of simulations – interactive content where the learner chooses characters to follow through a number of scenarios, with different videos showing the outcome of the learners choices.

Simulations are a fun way to see different content, and in this case, different characters and their stories.

We’ve had lots of great comments about our simulations so far.

Why is financial literacy so important for kids?

There’s lots of reasons – registering and completing the modules will show you many, or you can watch this video to get a quick introduction.

Who should use it?

Anyone is welcome to register and use MoneySmart Teaching Online. You can register at:

For Australian school educators, MoneySmart Teaching Online is recognised as 'Continuing Professional Development'. Educators who complete the formal elements of this program will receive a Certificate of Completion which, once endorsed by their School Principal can be submitted to the relevant state/territory authority and may count towards meeting the professional learning requirements for teacher registration and renewal.

Congratulations to the teams at Janison and ASIC for bringing this initiative to life!